Median Time to Return
How long the typical churned customer takes to come back — the shape of your win-back opportunity.
What is it?
Median Time to Return is how long it takes the typical churned customer to resubscribe — measured from cancellation to their next paid subscription. Using the median rather than the mean keeps a few customers who return after years from distorting the picture.
It tells you the shape of your win-back opportunity. A short, stable time-to-return means most returners come back quickly, so timely re-engagement works; a long tail means the ones who return do so for their own reasons, largely independent of your campaigns.
How to calculate?
For every customer who churned and later returned, measure the months between cancellation and resubscription, then take the median across that group. Customers who never return are excluded — this measures the returners only.
Read it with win-back rate: a high win-back rate paired with a short time-to-return is the strongest signal that your recovery motion, not luck, is bringing customers back.